Project Proposal

Proposal

Problem Statement:

The villagers of Bo Klua live in a remote, rural location, thus limiting their access to modern day technology and amenities. Manual labor such as transporting heavy loads up and down steep slopes is prevalent in a majority of the day to day activities, and causes chronic pain for many villagers.

Background:

Bo Klua is a sub-district in the Thai province of Nan. Nan is located in the northeastern corner of Thailand and is known for its mountainous terrain. Bo Klua is home to over fifty villages, each made up of one hundred to several hundred villagers. The villagers lack a steady supply of food due to several resource problems associated with the development of the area. Some villages lack electricity completely and the quality of water is also an issue. The three main issues the villagers face is chronic pain from carrying heavy loads up and down steep slopes, rice farming and transportation consuming too much of their time, and yield amounts of crops being too low.[2][3]

The native ground the villagers farm is steep, rocky terrain that is sloped up to 60 degrees. A fundamental challenge the farmers face is transporting their heavy loads of harvest up and down these hills back to their towns everyday. These loads can weigh up to 80 pounds and strain the body. The current practice used by female farmers is carrying the loads on their backs by using a strap around their foreheads to hold it for support; most of the males just carry their loads on their shoulders. These methods are used because they do not destroy any crops, and it is currently the quickest way to finish the job. It is currently the only known way to maintain cultural expectations. These methods are, however, not that sufficient because they cause stress on the back and neck and have proved to cause chronic pain to the farmers over time. The mountanous terrain of Bo Klua can be seen in Figure 1. [2][4]

                                               Figure 1: Farming Slopes of Bo Klua

The farmers choose to transport their loads this way because they lack available resources and do not want to spend more than one or two day’s income on a product. The farmers are not open to using any type of system involving wheels because of the danger of the wheels rolling down the hill, as well as the fear that the wheels will break. Two days of income is approximately $10, so the product needs to be fairly inexpensive to manufacture. A backpack made out of PVC piping and bamboo has been considered because those are two resources the villagers do have access to. Backpacks have not prevailed thus far in Bo Klua because it would be difficult to continuously transport heavy loads without the backpacks breaking. A sled type system and a pulley system have also been considered but the practicality of these systems is low because they would cost too much to manufacture. Each of the considered systems has its share of both pros and cons which have been broken down and weighed with decision matrices.

Stakeholders & Needs-in order of priority:
Primary:
Villagers of Thai Harvest Initiative

1. reduce strain experienced from carrying heavy loads up and down steep slopes
2. reliable product
3. durable product
4. cheap product (<$10 per unit)

Consumers In/Around Village

1. Increased productivity
2. Reliable source of food

Local Government

1. Safety for villagers
2. increased productivity
3. Continuing cultural practices
4. increased tax revenue
5. reduced health care costs

Secondary:
Group Members

1. Design a product that fulfills all of the villager’s needs
2. fulfill course requirements

Drexel University

1. Evidence that students are being productive

Tertiary:
Alexander Moseson

1. Ideas and enthusiasm towards Thai Harvest Initiative

Jorye Gross (Senior Mentor)

1. Experience with materials in Thailand

Constraints:

• Villagers work on slopes averaging from 45 degrees to 60 degrees
• Rough, rocky terrain
• Wheels are not an option; villagers are not interested in using wheels due to the danger of wheels rolling down the slopes
• Expenses cannot exceed more than 2 day’s earnings on an individual device (roughly $10.00)
• Villagers are limited to few materials

Budget:
Cost Constraints:

• less than $10 per unit- villagers must be able to afford product
• one day’s wage is ≈ $5
• villagers are willing to spend approximately two day’s worth of wages on a product

Expenses:

• 24 ft. PVC -- approximately $15.36

Projected Material Costs:

• PVC -  $6.36 per 10 ft. of 2 in. diameter pipe ≈ $.64/ft. [12]
• Copper - $91.83 per 10 ft. of 2 in. diameter pipe ≈ $9.18/ft. [12]
• Aluminum - $10.63 per 1 ft. of 2 in. diameter pipe ≈ $10.63/ft. [13]
• Timber Bamboo -  $11.29 per 1 ft. of 2 in. diameter bamboo pole ≈ $11.29/ft. [9]

• Classification Tree:

Preliminary Ideas:

Backpack Idea: Hiking backpack design, including back brace for increased posture control made from PVC pipe or bamboo pieces with a sack attached. This would include shoulder straps, as well as a strap around the waste. The sack would most likely be made out of woven bamboo or pvc piping, since these are local supplies that can be easily obtained and made by the villagers.

Sled: Build platform above skis which could be pulled up and down slopes-possible backpack harness

Ski Lift: Uses the same platform as in the Skis idea but instead of pulling the platform, the platform would be connected to wires strapped around the shoulders. This way the weight would not all be on the person's back like the Backpack idea and not all on the legs like in the initial Skis idea.

As shown in the classification tree, there were three main idea categories for transporting the villager’s materials: Wheels, Physical Carrying, and Dragging. Because a vehicle with wheels is not preferred by the villagers, the two remaining options were physical carrying and dragging. The physical carrying category was broken down into 2 options: a head pack or a backpack. The head pack method is the current method used by the villagers leaving the backup as the only new option in the physical carrying category.The dragging category was broken down into 2 more options: creating a pulley system in which the villagers could transport their loads with or using a sled type mechanism to drag the loads.

Because each of these options have their pros and cons, decision matrices were used to compare them. The head pack method was used as a control because it is the villager’s current method and it is compared to the backpack, ski lift, and sled ideas. The specifications used were pain reduction, carrying increase, time reduction, predicted cost, product life, and the product’s practicality of being used in Bo Klua. Each specification was given a grade from 1 to 5: 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. In the third decision matrix, a weight was given to each specification from 1 to 5. The most important specifications were predicted cost and practicality thus were given the weight of 5. Practicality was given a 5 because no matter how perfect a product is, if the villagers do not want to use it because of a cultural issue, it would be useless. Product life, time reduction and pain reduction were the second most important specifications thus were given the weight of 3. Carrying increase is still an important specification but has the lowest priority thus was given a weight of 1.

Decision Matrices:

1. +/- Scale

Specifications	Head pack (Current Method)	Backpack	Ski Lift	Sled
Pain Reduction	0	+	+	+
Carrying Increase	0	0	+	+
Time Reduction	0	0	+	+
Predicted Cost	+	+	-	+
Product Life	0	0	-	+
Practicality	+	+	-	0
Totals	2	3	0	5

2. Unweighted Scale (1 - 5)  1=worst, 5=best

Specifications	Head pack (Current Method)	Backpack	Ski Lift	Sled
Pain Reduction	1	3	4	3
Carrying Increase	1	1	4	3
Time Reduction	1	2	4	2
Predicted Cost	4	4	1	4
Product Life	3	2	3	3
Practicality	5	5	1	3
Totals	15	17	17	18

3. Weighted Scale (1 - 3) 1=least important, 5=most important

Specifications	WEIGHT	Head pack (Current Method)	Backpack	Ski Lift	Sled
Pain Reduction	3	1	3	5	3
Carrying Increase	1	1	1	3	3
Time Reduction	3	1	2	3	2
Predicted Cost	5	4	4	1	3
Product Life	3	3	2	3	3
Practicality	5	5	5	1	3
Totals		61	67	46	57

Because the third decision matrix was weighted, the results of this decision matrix will be considered the most. The backpack total was the highest at 42, then the sled at 40, then the head pack at 39, and then the ski lift at 31. These results make sense because of the low practicality and high cost of creating a ski lift type mechanis in Bo Klua. The ski lift would increase carrying loads and reduce pain the most, but the cost would be way too much and would be too difficult to assemble and maintain. Using these results as justification, the ski lift will be dropped from consideration.

The backpack and sled ideas prove to be the two most balanced ideas, moderately satisfying all of the specifications. The backpack came away with a slight edge because of the assumption that the villagers are more likely to want to wear a backpack then pull a sled because of the risk of the sled sliding down the steep slopes. Because of the danger of the sled sliding down the hills, the villagers may consider the sled undesirable as they do with using wheels to transport their loads. Based on these thoughts and numbers, the backpack idea is the best.

Predicted Project Timeline:
All Weeks: Continuously update blog with progress
Week 3:Finalize initial proposal
Week 4:Clarify project proposal and continue discussing project options
Week 5:Identify possible building materials
Week 6:Work on Design Concept
Week 7:Finish Design Concept and start working on Prototype
Week 8:Start prototype, if not started from previous week
Week 9:Finalize product
Week 10:Presentation of Product

Deliverables:
Week 4:
Week 5: Final Proposal
Week 6:
Week 7: Design Concept
Week 8:
Week 9: Prototype
Week 10: Final Presentation